Controversy is boiling in the wake of a crash that killed 42
hogs and has led to accusations of animal abuse for the handling of survivors
in the load of 180 pigs.
The Humane Society of Ontario says it will investigate the
crash and handling of survivors. The Animal Defence organization’s lawyer is
accusing those responding to the crash of animal cruelty.
And four major farm organizations have joined in a united
response – Farm and Food Care Ontario, the Christian Farmers Federation of
Ontario, the Ontario Federation of Agriculture and the Ontario Pork marketing
board.
It’s still not clear why the crash happened. Halton Policy
have not commented.
They have, however, laid charges against Anita Krajnc who
opposes hog slaughter. She is facing mischief charges laid by a hog farmer for
frequently turning up at the entrance to a hog-slaughter plant in Toronto and
trying to provide water for the pigs on trucks.
She was at the scene in Burlington on Wednesday when the
crash happened and was part of a team of protesters who shouted at workers.
One of the claims from the animal welfare activists is that
injured pigs were lying in the hot sun for four hours before they received
attention, even though two veterinarians were on site.
Presumably one or both are Canadian Food Inspection Agency
supervisors in charge of inspection at the Fearmans Pork plant.
Another complaint is that workers used paddles to get hogs
moving out of the tipped-over truck and that workers shepherding pigs to the
packing plant used panels “to hide” what they were doing.
Both the use of paddles and panels are common practices in
moving hogs.
